Simple Crab Cake Recipes

Whenever I see fresh crab available at the market, I buy a few, boil or sauté them and reserve at least one for cracking later to make another dish the following day. This is exactly what we did and this time I made crab cakes. I flavored the crab with capers, tarragon, chives and marinated artichoke hearts. My tip is to chill the crab cakes for a few minutes before cooking them to help them hold their shape.

I served the crab cakes with twice-baked potatoes and grilled asparagus on a bed of homemade hollandaise sauce. I wanted to serve the crab cakes warm, so little Aria and I dug in immediately after the meal was ready and I took photos afterwards. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to capture the beautiful crab cakes with the hollandaise sauce as reheating it caused curdling. So even though the sauce isn't pictured, give some extra time to preparing it because the results are well worth it for a perfect weeknight meal!

Crab cakes may be synonymous with Maryland in general and Baltimore in particular, but these delectable seafood treats are made San Francisco-friendly with the use of Dungeness crab. I love Dungeness crabs almost as much as Lulu loves the Niners, so you could say that this dish is a match made in heaven. Except of course that Lulu’s a vegetarian (I’ll post a veggie version next week).

For all us seafood eaters, this is a super easy dish to prepare, which makes it perfect party fare. The only part that requires any real effort is cooking, cracking and collecting the crab meat, but the results are well worth it!